llusion

And you think it means everything that’s not usual or abnormal!!

Illusion is such an integral part of all our lives, that though not difficult but we never give it a thought to separate it from facts. How many times have you heard about some road accident and still never thought of the same happening to you and rode comfortably on road? Heard about domestic violence in innumerable news channels and papers and thought it to be distant from your reality? Thought yourself to be unaffected by terrorism, until sometime back?

Why does it seem that we can’t be cheated, be victim of the riots we watch sitting comfortably in our couch? Why doesn’t the reality of situation in earthquake affected Haiti disturb us? Somebody who has been affected by such a calamity might relate to it, but we can’t, coz we don’t feel it, we are happy with changing the channel coz it didn’t or will not happen to us.

Before you contradict me, revisit the thoughts in your mind while on a bike. It’s your confidence that makes you ride comfortably agreed, but where does that confidence come from, the thought that nothing can happen to you?!? How can one be confident about skills of others on the same road, they can be cause of the accident. But when we gossip about some accident on the road, we never imagine it happening to us. I don’t blame you, of course how miserable it would have been if you were constantly under the fear that your chances of being hit are as much as the person who was hit and was in newspaper the same morning!!!

My friend who drives bike very well and is very quick in moving through traffic at high speed, without wearing helmet, told me the other day that he was very confident of going smooth and would never skid. I hope he doesn’t, but I really would want to know if those who meet with road accidents thought they were going to be hit. Was it really their driving skills?

Let’s not narrow our point of view and think of the aspect of illusion only in this context. How about smoking? Would someone who smokes 4-5 cigarettes a day think that he has very high chances of getting lung cancer? Or would he just ignore the FACT and be contented with his illusion that he just might get lucky and may not get lung cancer after all?

Well, I leave you to think of that... Am happy with the illusion that you have understood the point!

Rat Race

That was the best section of our house, no maintenance or fuss about arranging things. Just dump things and forget about them. Newspapers, old books, cartons, anything. Bachelors might as well agree of this description for their entire house though. No offence intended.
Might it sound cliché, “It all began” when the carrier of our own Lord Ganesha found solace in this corner of our house, putting it simply, a rat found its new home amidst our newspapers and books. Not that we keep our house in such a bad condition so as to be infested with pests, just that large window just behind this junk and easy access to the kitchen would have interested our guest who was definitely not welcomed. Probably in some other house this would have gone unnoticed for some time, but here? Naah. With spinsters in charge, of a house, everything from a spider to a lizard is a trouble, unlike few who live in harmony with them! So, IT was discovered one fine day when contents of the dustbin were found on the floor, much to the unease of the girls who more than anything don’t like their house dirty. I know I am being contradictory, but Hey!! THAT corner of the flat wasn’t dirty, just piling of neglected things.
Anyways, coming back to my narration, as soon as IT was discovered, we took a non-violent route and decided to make IT leave the house with our protest and a hunger strike for the rat. Hence, care was taken to lock all the doors before leaving the house and clear the floor of anything that can come in category of eatables. This continued for a week but alas! Guess things had to take a violent turn.
Tired of this hide and seek, we declared war. OK FINE!! We decided to clean up the mess and force IT to leave. Weekends are reserved for relaxing and cooking lots of varieties at home. But as this nuisance added to our erstwhile usual weekend, had to still manage all of it. So, as my roommates geared up to fight IT, I was pushed into the kitchen (with door securely locked, of course by me) to grind coconut which was preserved in oil. Half wondering about IT and the oil content of my lunch, I placed the jar on the grinder holding the handle firm (not taking any chances) and switched it on without holding the lid in place. What happened in the next two seconds is still a mystery; I only remember content of the jar (with its oil) splattered over my dress and half of the kitchen, that as luck would have it, had all our ‘cleaned’ utensils. Hmm! As I wondered, what to do next, covered in oil, heard my roommates scream and turned to find the rat finding its way through a small hole into the kitchen that in an instant found me sitting on the kitchen slab. To add to the drama, I found myself unable to open the kitchen door (that didn’t have a handle) with my ‘Oily’ hands and was left to explain the situation from inside the kitchen to my roommates who couldn’t hear anything, thanks to their constant cries to tell me that IT had entered kitchen. Deep Breath! Always works! Calm Down! Just a Rat! So I finally opened the door and faced the smiling and confused (at the same time) faces of my roommates (oil & grinder! Ah! Now u got it). With such an exciting start, it was decided to put an end to it without any more adventures and I ran all the way down from our fourth floor apartment to call the watchman and thanks to my stars I just had to say “Koncham help”…”Eli” (rat), and he understood. Cutting the story short, he put IT in a box and put an end to this episode. As for us, we spent rest of the afternoon cleaning the kitchen and I washing the dishes. Well that’s how I spent one of my Sundays and as my roommate put it, “No worries! Just another experience”!

When was the last time??

“When was the last time you did something for the first time?”......hahaha! nice one....No am serious, When was the last time you did something for the first time?...c’mon, what sort of a question is that?.......Plain English I would call it....Yeah! but why would anyone think of a silly question as that??........Now, “THAT” is the solution to all your problems!!! ....

Monday Morning

....Yeah another week!! Huh!

Gud Morning Boobesh, Hi Rohit... What on Data front? Client call? As usual at 10am? Great. Let’s see what they say to these results we’ve obtained for them.
.... Lunch? Yepp ..sure! as soon as I’m done with this code. What next?? Meet with the Manager..here we go.... !
Mom, shall I call you in the evening?!…Kind of busy now.... yeah heard Anitha is in town, will see if I could meet her…I know …but am busy rite now..talk to you later.
Here it goes again…Wonder why nothing happens straight....another two hrs to be spent if tomorrow’s deadline is to be met….can’t I ever see daylight at the end of the day??huh!! back to code..!
Gym?? Are u kidding? when do u think I have been to gym last? Sry yaar..just kind of disturbed..will have coffee together later, now busy…
Hahh...finally back to room....!!
Who dares call me this late at night? Oh god! It’s morning already....

--------- Another day begins!!!
Mann….I am stuck with this boring life, those good old college days. Anyways, what’s the use ?!?
I feel dead on weekends to even meet those “good old” friends....even too tired to get up....Hey..Don’t bother me with your silly questions..Let me sleep..!!
---------------------
Ok, tell me…what do you do when your head aches??....take a pill I guess…..what when your code goes wrong??......Think over the mistake and set it right…..Great!! Then why this logic doesn’t apply to u as a person??Why is it that when u know u have a boring life, u don’t do anything??.......
Don’t look at me like that..I can’t do anything .... FINE!!!!! I agree am not doing anything to help this routine but how can I when I don’t have time for anything else....I know I whine at every precious lost moment and hope to compensate for it in future…I know that I fool myself into thinking that I can ever reach that future.... but.... huh!
Coming back to my question…. When was the last time you did something for the first time? ……I?!! I dunno, I’ve been having same lunch, taking same bus route, doing same things on weekends (sleeping!) and…I won’t answer this stupid question….I don’t want to answer…..I can’t remember….I give up..I can’t remember!!!
There lies the answer……or solution to ur problem..!! Ask yourself this question and strive to get the answer….
…HOW???
How am I to know?? May be for a change get up early, feel the warmth of early morning sun…try out a new restaurant….Pick up a friend on the way to office …do something u never did before….learn guitar..bore ur frends with ur stupid talk (:)), Talk to ur MOM!!! Dance ..sing….anything……!!! Dare to do something differently today, tomorrow, each day….
Will this help??
(smiles) How am I to know?? I am just ur conscience......which u stopped bothering about long back….
…..C’mon! LIVE and not just Survive!! ….
By the way, when was the last time YOU did something for the first time??

Life in a ...Metro

Now…..this is what I call perfect beginning of another Monday….late again!!! Mondays are supposed to be bad so here I am staring at my cell that is showing 8:15 instead of 7. But how late will I be when there are frequent buses and after all I am in a big city!! Hey, this is not the time to think, get up lazy bones and get ready for another day is what I convince myself with and reach the bus stop late than usual.
“Why are roads so dirty these days?”…”Back to office after weekend? :( ” … “How happy she looks sitting comfortably in bus, will I get a seat?”…”see those guys hanging from bus…can’t they think of their safety? Guys!!” … “Kiran Tiffins” … “Sai Kirana Stores” … “Sankar Men’s ‘Beauty’ Parlour….weird!!?!!” …….hello…..get your train of thoughts back to reality. But what is one supposed to do when you have been waiting for a bus on “Monday morning” for more than 30 min.
hey!! Is that 18K?? a completely packed bus owing to it being the only one in my route, tilted on to one side coz of people hanging on to the bus at the footboard and making you praise Ashok Leyland for making so ruff & tuff buses for Indian roads. Yup!! That’s the bus I have to take. Let’s see, with 8 people on footboard and a completely packed bus, on an average at this time of morning 5 people ready to get down and 8 to get in, probability of me getting a chance without having to force my way seems rare( Analytics mind at work. Can’t help, that’s what I do 10 hrs a day). …………….. This part of my life is called being in my control despite the crowd, the heat and being in a bus which is tilted and also when u had to fight ur way into the bus and stepped on water clogged due to yesterday’s rain. And to add to it, Traffic!!! Big City!!
4 Km in 30 minutes……says it all! And here I am back in AC and sharing my agony with all. But its not all about negativity after all. How can I forget those helping hands who passed my ticket back to me from the conductor without having to move through that crowd from one end to the other, those who adjusted coz I felt uncomfortable standing in the crowd and the same crowd that taught me patience (being optimist..I know!! :)).
Well every city has something good to its credit, am just discovering. But every time I have to wait in long queue to get ticket at local railway station or get stuck in traffic, strange but I smile and say to myself, this is Chennai…..Welcome to the METRO!!!

Cheers!!!

I wonder how I landed up writing a blog; reasons might be extreme boredom, break from usual monotonous work and … most importantly to enlighten the erstwhile lost people to this great and amazing world…..naah..just kidding. I dedicate this blog to all my friends. I’ve had the best and worst of my times being a bitsian, but the journey from being a bitsian to an ex-bitsian was amazing. I made many friends, among those who were close to me taught me how it was to have someone whom u can rely upon and be assured that they didn’t judge u even when u do something very crazy. From the rest I learnt to be patient even when u couldn’t stand them and to remain calm coz sometimes silence works better than arguments. It’s them who have shaped my attitude towards life and will be always thankful to them.

With graduation, ended one of the most beautiful part of my life, but I guess I’ll be a student all my life learning from everyone I meet, at least that’s what I aspire to do.

Before I start this new phase, thanks to my friends and BITS. With that note, here i begin....